This application claims the priority of German Patent Application No. DE 100 59 912.5, filed Dec. 1, 2000, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a motor vehicle with a floor installation structure comprising a central tunnel running longitudinally, which is connected with a floor transverse support of the structure through connection elements.
In German Patent Document DE 38 13 455 C2, and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,600, a floor installation structure for a motor vehicle body is known which includes a front and rear floor plate whereby a longitudinally running tunnel is integrated into the front floor plate. The connection of the two floor plates takes place by way of angular stops on the floor plates running crosswise to the motor vehicle which are connected with one another and form a hollow support.
An aspect of the invention is to create a connection between a rear and a front floor sheet of a floor installation structure of a motor vehicle which results in an optimal torsion rigidity of the floor structure, whereby the connection between the floor elements is simple to manufacture and is constructed so it can be assembled.
This aspect is accomplished in accordance with certain preferred embodiments of the invention in that the connection elements for a transverse-running hollow support unit, including plural chambers, with the floor installation structure, and a tunnel segment which connects the central tunnel with the hollow support unit, is held with one free end in the hollow support unit and with a turned-away free end in the central tunnel. Other certain preferred embodiments contain additional advantageous features.
Advantages primarily attained with certain preferred embodiments of the invention are that, in addition to achieving a high torsion rigidity of the floor installation structure, in the event of a frontal impact a favorable introduction of forces into adjacent installation structure takes place. This is accomplished advantageously since the connection elements of the front and rear floor sheet form a transversely running hollow support unit of the floor installation structure and a tunnel segment arranged between the central tunnel, and the hollow support unit is held with its one free end in the hollow support unit and with its other turned-away free end in the central tunnel. This hollow support unit forms several chambers separated from each other through the connection elements.
In order to advantageously construct a stable connection unit between the two floor sheets in front and back, the hollow support unit has an angular heel sheet arranged beneath the floor installation structure or a back-lying floor sheet with a contoured locking segment arranged and moved up in a longitudinal central plane of the central tunnel and a further angular heel sheet arranged above the floor sheet. In this way, the heel sheets are connectable by way of stops with the floor installation structure as well as with one another.
For form-locking centering between the tunnel segment and the lower heel sheet, it is advantageously provided that the tunnel segment has a section with a U-shaped cross section with a projecting U-section arranged in the bar, and that the segment has an angular cutout with mounting straps on the legs and on the front face toward the underlying heel sheet. In this way, the result is that the moved-up contoured locking segment of the lower heel sheet has a contouring corresponding to the contouring of the tunnel segment and is to be arranged form-lockingly within the tunnel segment.
In part, hollow supports arise between the heel sheet or the heel sheet and the floor sheet which bestow upon the connection a relatively great rigidity, preferably transversely, and consequently counteract a torsion of the floor installation structure.